Objective: To investigate the roles of different clinicopathological features and expression of EBV genome in prognosis of intestinal T-cell lymphoma (ITCL).
Methods: Polymerase chain reaction for TCR-gamma gene rearrangement, in situ hybridization for EBER1/2 and immunohistochemical staining for CD4, CD8, CD45RO, CD56, TIA-1 were investigated and all patients followed-up. The LMP-1 expression was determined in forty-two ITCLs cases. The relationship between clinical data, different clinicopathological features, expression of EBV genome and prognosis were analyzed by SPSS10.0 program.
Results: (1) All 42 cases of ITCL had an extremely poor prognosis with a median survival of 3.0 months, of which the one year survival rate and two year survival rate being 30% and 22% respectively. (2) The patients without TCR-gamma gene rearrangements showed poorer prognosis than those with TCR-gamma gene rearrangements, and the patients who received operation and chemotherapy showed better prognosis than those who only received operation (P < 0.05). (3) No significant prognostic factor for ITCLs was determined.
Conclusion: The special clinicopathological features of ITCL could be due to the cytotoxic function and the role of EBV infection in the pathogenesis of ITCL.